Today's Show:
Blu-ray would like to supplant DVD and take over as the dominant video format in households all around the world. We see the advantage from a pure quality perspective, but believe that costs have to line up for it to actually happen. With so many forces pulling against it, can Blu-ray really become the successor to DVD? more...

Not everyone buys off of Amazon to get those cheaper Blu Ray prices. A large portion of buyers come from stores like Wal Mart. (I do buy from Amazon) Most New Release Blu Ray cost $24.99 at my store and I refuse to pay that much for any movie. The Best Buy in my area charges $23-$25 for newer releases also. That article is a little flawed as far as reality goes for most people. $8 price difference for Blu is more realistic. I think that price is what is really holding it back from taking off. Not to mention the wonderful sate of our economy. I honestly love Blu and hope it is here to stay for awhile.

As far as the digital copy... who cares? I have no use for it. If I want to play it on a portable device I will just rip the disc or download it. Extra DVD copy... again who cares? Why do I want the DVD if I have it on Blu? I can understand with family films so you can let the kids destroy the dvd copy and keep the Blu for the main collection. Dont give me all that extra useless junk and pass on the savings.

Streaming is a joke also. (as far as HD audio and video goes) There is also many areas that do not get high speed internet yet so sales will be lost there. Not to mention Bandwidth issues. If physical media goes away imagieg how much bandwidth that would suck up during the evenings when everyone is in front of the tube. Streaming is nice but it irritates me to no end when it freezes and stutters. There needs to be a lot of infrastructure upgrading in order for that one to reach full full potential and I do not see that happening anytime soon. And besides Streaming Netflix looks and sounds nowhere near as good as a full blown Blu Ray in 1080P pumping out lossless audio. I will stick with physical media until they pry it out of my hands!!

I think Blu will take over only if they lower the price.
Contrary to Dingane's thinking, players are already cheap. The software is too expensive at a typical price of $20 to $25.
I have two kids and I like to buy some movies(we have a couple hundred over the years), but to buy Blus for that price is just too high.
I buy movies all the time at $15 because I can justify it over renting at that price.

Streaming sucks, because you will not have a physical copy, no lossless sound,
& no extras. They want to kill off Physical Media so they can reduce their cost of duplication while charging you the same or more than it would have cost if you bought the disk at a store.

I will stick to buying DVD & Blu-Ray, & will never use streaming services. I love my Physical Media!

Now the REAL war starts! Sony muscled up and defeated HD DVD because they thought it was their only impediment to "corner the market". But their real enemy all along was streaming/downloading of movies. I love my Blu-ray too, and I never want to see physical media go away, but the vast majority of the movie viewing public do not understand, or even care about high bitrate video and lossless audio.

Perhaps the Blu-ray and HD DVD camps should have worked together instead of fighting against each other. As it stands now, they were never enemies in the first place.
Bubba04

The prices for Blu-Ray movies will drop soon enough. Already at Walmart, they have Blu-ray double features for $20 & under, not bad at all! I remember, just 4 years ago I bought a X-Men, I Robot DVD double feature for the same price as the Blu-Ray.

I think that Blu-Ray will take over the market if George Lucas gets on board. Remember how long it took Lucas Films to put the starwars films out on DVD? And I'm not looking to get into the argument about the "extras" he put in the film(s). I just think that if he would to start producing his older films i.e. Star Wars, Indiana Jones etc. There would be a bigger draw to that format. I personally am looking forward to that day.

Within 5 years, you will have 1080p downloads with lossless audio and that will be the end for Blu-ray. It will still be around but the CE companies will see the end in site. While some of us like having the physical media, most you just as soon not have all these discs around collecting dust. Check the top of your disc cases. See how mush dust is on them. Think about it, do you really need them?

I think that Blu-Ray will take over the market if George Lucas gets on board. Remember how long it took Lucas Films to put the starwars films out on DVD? And I'm not looking to get into the argument about the "extras" he put in the film(s). I just think that if he would to start producing his older films i.e. Star Wars, Indiana Jones etc. There would be a bigger draw to that format. I personally am looking forward to that day.

That day suppose to come in 2011. Starwars all 6 movies are being worked on for blu-ray as we speak. were looking at first a box set,can't image how much that will cost ,but starwars is coming. Indiana Jones?, i heard rumors it was suppose to be last qtr this year,but i woundnt be to hopeful on that. the rumor was dec 2009.

Within 5 years, you will have 1080p downloads with lossless audio and that will be the end for Blu-ray. It will still be around but the CE companies will see the end in site. While some of us like having the physical media, most you just as soon not have all these discs around collecting dust. Check the top of your disc cases. See how mush dust is on them. Think about it, do you really need them?

They added extra features to DVD over a decade ago, something you'll never get from streaming services. There will always be people interested in "the making of " and things of that nature.

I think Blu will take over only if they lower the price.
Contrary to Dingane's thinking, players are already cheap. The software is too expensive at a typical price of $20 to $25.
I have two kids and I like to buy some movies(we have a couple hundred over the years), but to buy Blus for that price is just too high.
I buy movies all the time at $15 because I can justify it over renting at that price.

JMO,
Scott

you did this for your wife?you great..
then you don like to watch movie?
how much you spend more dolors for movies?

Not everyone buys off of Amazon to get those cheaper Blu Ray prices. A large portion of buyers come from stores like Wal Mart. (I do buy from Amazon) Most New Release Blu Ray cost $24.99 at my store and I refuse to pay that much for any movie. The Best Buy in my area charges $23-$25 for newer releases also. That article is a little flawed as far as reality goes for most people. $8 price difference for Blu is more realistic. I think that price is what is really holding it back from taking off.

I always wondered why it is that movies and music are nearly opposite in this regard. When a new album comes out from whatever artist, the "New Release" price is often the best price, after it gets "old" the price goes up. If it's a hit/popular album, when enough time passes it will be cheap again but if not expect to pay higher $. Today this effect is lessened since CD sales are sluggish due to iPods, etc., and they have to stay competitive. But going back before iPods this could be seen clearly. Movies on the other hand, when they are released they are the $25-30 you mention, you wait a month or so and it's down to $15, lol. Well not all of them (I had to wait forever before I got Iron Man BD for even $20) but for the most part if you bought a movie when it was released on video, you're feeling like a sucker when you pass by it in the store a month later and it's $10 less than you paid.

Quote:

Originally Posted by steve0742003

Streaming is a joke also. (as far as HD audio and video goes) There is also many areas that do not get high speed internet yet so sales will be lost there.

Don't you mean sales will increase there? If people don't have the speed to stream, aren't they more likely to buy the BD of the movie?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dingane Walker

Streaming sucks, because you will not have a physical copy, no lossless sound,
& no extras. They want to kill off Physical Media so they can reduce their cost of duplication while charging you the same or more than it would have cost if you bought the disk at a store.

I don't think it's "they" so much as consumers/the marketplace itself. The masses would rather stream/download than buy from the physical version from the store. The only thing stopping them right now is the speed. If you doubt it's the marketplace, go and take a look at the size of the CD section in most big box stores--not much compared to what it used to be, because now everyone dls music. "They" (meaning the companies behind producing this content) didn't have to try very hard there.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dingane Walker

I will stick to buying DVD & Blu-Ray, & will never use streaming services. I love my Physical Media!

Sure, I do too but we're more in the minority, believe me. Hey I still buy CDs (I rip them immediately and don't use the disc for long, but I still buy the CD rather than download it off Amazon, iTunes, etc.); but who does that anymore? Not a lot of people.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bubba04

But their real enemy all along was streaming/downloading of movies.

I think it's more the emerging enemy than the enemy "all along". HD-DVD was certainly a threat at the get go.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bubba04

Perhaps the Blu-ray and HD DVD camps should have worked together instead of fighting against each other. As it stands now, they were never enemies in the first place.
Bubba04

They tried, but it didn't work out. Toshiba wanted to be stupid and think that a lower capacity, lower-tech disc was going to win out I don't think that's too important anyway. Though there were resources used in that battle, HD-DVD bowed out early enough that you can't even really consider it anymore as not it is all one format.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrckonertr

I think that Blu-Ray will take over the market if George Lucas gets on board. Remember how long it took Lucas Films to put the starwars films out on DVD?

Didn't you just disprove your own argument? LOL. It did take a long time for Lucas to get their major films on DVD but that didn't stop DVD from taking over in the meantime, did it? Same with BD, it doesn't need Lucasfilm to take over the market, it just needs time.

I don't think it's a matter of whether BD can take over the market that DVD still holds, it's a matter of when. Streaming is a few years off at least, and even if that eventually takes the lead over everything, BD will still likely take the crown from DVD even if it's not for long and even if by then "the crown" doesn't mean much. I mean imagine if SACD or DVD-A had taken over from CD? Well there wouldn't be much to take over at this point, since barely anyone buys CDs, nevermind the higher-res formats (which are all but dead). I.e. If everyone that buys CDs today was buying SACDs instead, it still wouldn't amount to much, would it?

The question I think a lot of people should ask themselves is if they have a BD player, when was the last time they even bought a DVD? LOL. I for one refuse--DVDs are horrible when viewed on an HDTV. If I wanted DVD quality I could download it from the internet for free; or wait, I could download higher than DVD quality for free (720p rips). Now if you and I aren't buying DVDs anymore, it's only a matter of time before other people get BD players and start doing the same. And if you are still buying DVDs I can only ask "what the heck is wrong with you?" lol.

While I agree that BD media is, overall, too expensive, DVDs are just a complete rip off IMO. New release DVDs cost ~$20+ as well and to me that's a laugh. It's less than 1/4 the quality for 60-75% of the price? Are you joking? Personaly I think it's a miracle anyone buys DVDs anymore!

1080p content, on the other hand, is a bit harder to download (illegally or otherwise). Such content takes up ~4x the space (and then some with HD audio) as 720p and would have many people hitting bandwidth limits after only a few movies. Streaming it is even more difficult and though I'm sure it is possible in some areas, getting it to a high level of reliability and over most of the continent? Well I don't think that will come sooner than BD takes over the market from DVD.

i think blu will take over with streaming as a bonus but it will take time - the players are cheap enough depending on the features and while i refuse to pay $30 for a movie there enough movies out that have 20 or under tags. the other day i was in target and picked up the 2 disc blu of the dark knight in a fancy mask case with digital copy for $15. i do like the digital copy not a huge importance but it is nice (the dark knight did not even mention this on the packaging so i was surprised to see it inside).

i think the big hurdle is the whole hdmi thing to make blu a reality for people. people that spent good money on a great receiver, tv pj, etc that did not have hdmi are out of luck until they pony up more money. my family room tv is a 36" sony xbr wega. it is flat screen but has a tube and weighs in at about 200 front heavy pounds. i bough it back in 2000 i think. the quality is great and i have not desire to change it.

our movie theater is different. the former owner had a movie theater set up in the bonus room and we opted to keep it and bough some of the gear from him. it was a dlp pj w/ no hdmi. well the color wheel exploded and now we have the panasonic 4k. it looked ok but i was not thrilled. then i got a blu ray for my bday but the receiver i bought form the guy, while great had no hdmi. well i cashed in some cc points for my Yamaha 667 and will finish hooking it all up tonight but i did connect the player to the pj t make sure it and the cable worked and was blown away. the image quality is amazing and my wife even said this was what the ht should have been from the get go. i am more than impressed. i hope it makes my dvds look better as those will not be replaced but any furture buys will be blu.